April 2014: The president of the United States Barack Obama has announced that
additional diplomatic sanctions should now be imposed on Iceland for undermining
international agreements and the International Whaling Commission’s global ban
on commercial whaling.
Despite the ban, which came into force in 1986, Iceland has continued to hunt whales
and resumed commercial whale hunts in 2006. Iceland's 2010 commercial whale hunt
was the largest of its kind in decades, with 148 endangered fin whales and 60 minkes whales killed.
Measures announced by Obama include directing US agencies to raise concerns about
Iceland’s commercial whaling and trade in fin whale meat and products in any meetings
with Icelandic officials and in appropriate CITES venues.
Obama has also stated that the US Government will continue to monitor the companies
that engage in whaling and trade in fin whale and all relevant agencies are required
to report back to the President in six months on the status of whaling.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare US Campaigns Director Beth Allgood said:
“We are very pleased that President Obama has taken such strong action against Iceland
and its dying whale meat industry which so much of the world abhors.”
We are more than pleased, thank you Obama.
Full credit for the article/text that has been used as a petition material goes to the Source,
which can be found here:
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/US-Iceland-whale-hunt.html